Knitting, nature and the scruffy little dog of my heart.

Archive for September, 2007

I am having such a fabulous time aboard the Volendam. It is lvoely to be so spolied and relax and relax.

I finally finished Nagini yesterday – can you believe it? Neither can I. I cast on for Bellatrix last night and I am loving this pattern. The yarn is so lush too. Mmmmm. I met quite a few kindly knitters while working away on the deck – pictures will follow when I get home.

I found a lovely yarn shop here and got a real steal on some Elesbeth Lavold Silky Tweed – which I have never used before. The fabulous shop owner even wound all the wool into balls for me while I browsed some more.

I bought some Artyarns Merino sock yarn outside of my usual colour scheme. The whole bill was less than $40 and with our money so strong right now…Yay!

In the meanwhile I am working for the 4th time on Nagini – the b*stard sock from h*ll. It finally fits properly and now I have to stop myself from changing it into an ankle sock to just be finished with the blasted thing already.

I have packed Bellatrix, because one Nagini is going to be enough for me. I can tell. Can’t you? I am going to be using some evily-tinged green bamboo blend yarn named Hedera Helix from Perchance to Knit. Gorgeous stuff.

I have been catching up on my blog reading (sorry if I haven’t gotten to you yet – I will) and the posts at Fat Chick Crafts have been giving me a lot to think about. Being overweight can be an all consuming thing and it is amazing how polarized discussions about weight/weight loss quickly become.

In that department – I was down 3.2 lbs at the last weigh in. Which means I actually lost close to 11 lbs, because I didn’t go back for 3 weeks – I couldn’t cope with having those numbers recorded — or paying $15 to be told what I already knew.

Oh and speaking of $’s – could our dollar be any better as I head off to Alaska? Let the shopping begin! That reminds me, I need to do an internet search for yarn shops in the ports of call since I haven’t found any in the past.

I haven’t been able to put Pope Joan down but I abandoned Until I Find You – I saw too much of an online review while linking to the sidebar and had no interest in ‘gratuitous passages of sexual abuse’. Come on.

I’ll leave you with a pic of the last Hydrangeas of this season.

Oooh and also today while I was in the dentist’s chair, struggling to relax during a root canal, what comes on the radio? Yep. Flight of the Conchords. Business Time. Jemaine Clement. A perfect distraction.

so I didn’t get makeup on yesterday so…no Dress Code pic. Sorry. I am not a woman of my word – but most of you already know that.

What I really was going to say is this: The other morning I woke up, it was early, I was in no rush. I stretched my arms out to the side and what the?! Agonizing pain in my left arm. What in the holy h*ll is that?

I thought maybe a cat had dropped a nail (seriously, it happens) and so I grabbed at it to pull it out. And it was a squirming WASP! I threw it across the room and it flew right back at me.

What was it doing in my bed? Whatever. It hurt. Really, really hurt. And truly – it is 3 or 4 days later and my arm is still itchy. I have a bad feeling that means I am allergic or getting allergic.

So…here’s the knitting update. Still no pic of the Dress Code – tomorrow should be a red letter day (aka I’ll be wearing makeup and my hair should be somewhat styled) so it could make for a good photo shoot. Then there’s Nagini.

Ah. Nagini. Just writing about it makes me hissss. I have ripped back 3 times now. The foot is perfect. The cables are a dream. The blasted thing won’t fit past my ankle. So. Here is hoping the 3rd time’s the charm or I am going to hex that horrid thing.

Perhaps because of Nagini, camping, family visits and work moves (don’t even let me get started on that!) or perhaps because of numerous intangibles I have been feeling disinclined to knit.

I haven’t even bought any yarn. Shocking isn’t it?

I have been doing the strangest things instead. Excercising. Reading — books! Organizing my house. Watching movies in the dark (remember that?). Talking on the phone. Learning – somewhat – how to work my Ipod (now to load up/upload some new files…).

This is Kira’s reaction to our new schedule of extra long walks.

Speaking of excercising – I realize that I have thoroughly neglected the Weight Loss Challenge – mostly because I was kicking *ss at the Weight Gain Challenge, what with all the chips, smokies and s’mores during 3 weeks of camping adventures. This week marks my return to WW’s and I sincerely hope I have gotten this binging out of my system. At least until my CRUISE!! 12 more sleeps people!

And now that we’ve gotten into binging…I cannot stop with the Flight of the Conchords. They are comedic perfection. Cousin M and I watched the whole season online last weekend. I cannot get their music out of my head. This afternoon an HBO special of theirs was on — right after Rushmore.

Max Fischer: Tell that stupid Mick he just made my list of things to do today.